Wednesday, August 25, 2010

As we head into the heart of the summer vacation season, Tufts faculty and staff have books they recommend you add to your reading list. There’s certainly some beach reading, but mostly it’s food for thought. Take them along as paperbacks, hardcovers or e-books. Anyway you read, enjoy.

April 1865, by Jay Winik. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volumes I and II, by M.T. Anderson.
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell.
Bottled & Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, by Peter Gleick
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, by Elizabeth KolbertThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
The Madonnas of Echo Park, by Brando Skyhorse
One L, by Scott Turow
Operation Mincemeat, by Ben Macintyre
Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family’s Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, by Thomas Oliphant
Reinventing Order in the Congo: How People Respond to State Failure in Kinshasa, edited by Theodore Trefon
Self-made Man: Human Evolution from Eden to Extinction, by Jonathan Kingdon
The Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French, by Jean-Benoit Nadeau
Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, by E.B. Sledge
The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande
Cold Snap: Bulgarian Stories, by Cynthia Morrison
The Enduring Shore, by Paul Schneider
Hellhound on His Trail, by Hampton Sides
The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837–1861, edited by Damion Searls
The Likeness, by Tana French
A Person of Interest, by Susan ChoiThe Places In Between, by Rory Stewart
When Skateboards Will be Free, by Said SayrafiezadehWolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

The Royal Society Prize for Science Books celebrates the very best in popular science writing.
Ever since the Prizes were originally established in 1988 they have had the same aim - to encourage the writing, publishing and reading of good and accessible popular science books. They have grown to become one of the UK's most prestigious non-fiction literary prizes.

2010
Shortlist-A World Without Ice by Henry Pollack
Shortlist-Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic by Frederick Grinnell
Shortlist-God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science by James Hannam
Shortlist-Life Ascending by Nick Lane
Shortlist-We Need To Talk About Kelvin by Marcus Chown
Shortlist-Why Does E=mc2? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
Longlist-Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne
Longlist-In Search of the Multiverse by John Gribbin
Longlist-Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen
Longlist-Darwin’s Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England by Steve Jones
Longlist-The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist
Longlist-Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell

The winner will be announced on October 21.

The 2009 Prize
Winner: The age of wonder: How the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science by Richard Holmes
Shortlisted: Bad science by Ben Goldacre
Shortlisted: Decoding the heavens: Solving the mystery of the world's first computer by Jo Marchant,
Shortlisted: The drunkard's walk: How randomness rules our lives by Leonard Mlodinow
Shortlisted: What the nose knows: The science of scent in everyday life by Avery Gilbert
Shortlisted: Your inner fish: The amazing discovery of our 375-million-year-old ancestor by Neil Shubin
Longlisted: Ice, mud and blood: Lessons from climates past by Chris Turney
Longlisted: Living with Enza: The forgotten story of Britain and the great flu pandemic of 1918 by Mark Honigsbaum
Longlisted: Microcosm: E. coli and the new science of life by Carl Zimmer
Longlisted: Physics for future presidents: The science behind the headlines by Richard A Muller,
Longlisted: Quantum: Einstein. Bohr and the great debate about the nature of reality by Manjit Kumar
Longlisted: Strange fruit: Why both sides are wrong in the race debate by Kenan Malik
Longlisted: The universe in a mirror : The saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the visionaries who built it by Robert Zimmerman

2008 Junior Prize
Winner: The big book of science things to make and do, by Rebecca Gilpin and Leonie Pratt
Shortlisted: Ask Dr K Fisher about animals, by Claire Llewellyn
Shortlisted: How the incredible human body works, by the Brainwaves, written by Richard Walker
Shortlisted: It's elementary!, by Robert Winston
Shortlisted: Serious Survival: How to Poo in the Arctic and Other Essential Tips for Explorers, by Marshall Corwin
Shortlisted: Why is snot green?Science Museum question and answer book, by Glenn Murphy

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The winners of the 2010 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards, sponsored by the Midwest Booksellers Association and chosen by member bookstores, are:

Fiction: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Nonfiction: The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow (Gotham Books)

Poetry: The Chain Letter of the Soul: New and Selected Poems by Bill Holm (Milkweed Editions)

Children's Picture Book: Otis by Loren Long (Philomel)

Children's Literature: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press)

Honor Books:

Fiction: Driftless by David Rhodes (Milkweed Editions)

Nonfiction: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (St. Martin's)

Poetry: Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude edited by Jim Perlman

Children's Picture Book: Moose on the Loose by Kathy-jo Wargin, illustrated by John Bendall-Brunello

Children's Literature: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

2009 Award Winners

Fiction: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
Nonfiction: Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting by Michael Perry (HarperCollins)
Poetry: Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle by Freya Manfred (Red Dragonfly Press)
Children's Picture Book: Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Harry Bliss (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)
Children's Literature: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins Children's Books)

2007 Winners
Fiction: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Nonfiction: Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry
Poetry: The Blizzard Voices: Poems by Ted Kooser
Children’s Picture Book: A Good Day by Kevin Henkes
Children’s Literature: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

2007 Honorable Mention
Fiction: Copper River by William Kent Krueger
Nonfiction: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
Poetry: To Sing Along the Way:Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present by Connie Wanek
Children’s Picture Book: A Woodland Counting Book by Claudia McGehee
Children’s Picture Book: Winter is the Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer
Children’s Literature: In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth

Monday, August 23, 2010

Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards.

2009
The prizes are awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh for the best work of fiction and the best biography published during the previous year.
The five shortlisted works for the fiction prize are:

* Strangers by Anita Brookner

* The Children’s Book by A.S Byatt -- Winner!

* Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

* The Selected Works of T.S Spivet by Reif Larsen

* Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The five books competing for the £10,000 biography prize are:
* Cheever: A life by Blake Bailey
* William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies by John Carey -- Winner!
* Muriel Spark: The Biography by Martin Stannard
* A Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth MacMillan by Jann Parry
* The English Opium Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey by Robert Morrison

The winners will be announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2010.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Three authors have been named to the shortlist for the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which honors the best crime, mystery or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident and published in New Zealand during 2009. The winner will be honored at the Press Christchurch Writers' Festival in September.

2010 finalistsCut & Run by Alix BoscoBurial by Neil CrossContainment by Vanda Symon

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Ambassador Book Award is awarded annually by the English Speaking Union. It recognizes important literary works that contribute to the understanding and interpretation of American life and culture. Winners of the award are considered literary ambassadors who provide, in the best contemporary English, an important window on America to the rest of the world. A panel of judges, currently chaired by author Maureen Howard, selects books out of new works in the fields of fiction, biography, autobiography, current affairs, American studies and poetry.

2010 Winners
American Studies: The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: History of the End of the Cold War ; James Mann
American Studies: Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression ; Morris Dickstein
Biography and Autobiography: Louis D. Brandeis: A Life by Melvin Urofsky (Pantheon)Fiction: Let the Great World Spin; Colum McCann
Poetry: Mercury Dressing; J. D. McClatchy(Alfred A. Knopf)
SPECIAL DISTINCTION AWARD: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Robin D.G. Kelley (Free Press)

The winners of the 2009 English-Speaking Union Ambassador Book Awards for works best depicting American life and culture are:

American Studies: Christopher Benfey -- A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade
Current Affairs: Jane Mayer -- The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
Fiction: Steven Millhauser -- Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
Poetry: Alan Shapiro, for Old War (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Biography and Autobiography: Donald Worster -- A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir
In addition, Toni Morrison won a special Ambassador Book Award for her books' "illumination of African-American experience."

2007American Studies - The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan
Autobiography - The Afterlife: A Memoir, by Donald AntrimBiography - The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by Debby Applegate
Current Affairs - Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks
Fiction - The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by Amy Hempel
Poetry - Averno, by Louise Glück
Lifetime Achievement - Garry Wills

2006
American Studies - A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, by Stacy Schiff
Biography & Autobiography - American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin
Fiction - Liberation: A Novel, by Joanna Scott
Poetry - Migration, by W.S. Merwin

2001American Studies - In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick
Biography & Autobiography - The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw
Lifetime Achievement - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Fiction - Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks, by Russell Banks
Poetry - American Poerty: The Twentieth Century, 2 vols., by Hass, Hollander, Kizer, Mackey, Perloff

2000
American Studies - Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, by David M. Kennedy
Biography & Autobiography - Morgan: American Financier, by Jean StrouseFiction - Close Range: Wyoming Stories, by Annie Proulx
Poetry - Vita Nova, by Louise Glück

1999
American Studies - Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball
Biography & Autobiography - N.C. Wyeth, by David Michaelis
Fiction - I Married a Communist, by Philip Roth
Poetry - The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren, by John Burt

1998
American Studies - American Visions, by Robert Hughes
Autobiography - Burning the Days: Recollection, by James Salter
Biography - American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph Ellis
Fiction - Underworld, by Don DeLillo
Poetry - Black Zodiac, by Charles Wright

1997
American Studies - Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose
Biography & Autobiography - Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop- Guardians of the American Century, by Robert W. Merry
Fiction - In the Beauty of the Lilies, by John Updike
Poetry - The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966 - 1996, by Robert Pinsky

1996
American Studies - Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence, by John Hockenberry
Biography & Autobiography - Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography, by David S. Reynolds
Fiction - All the Days and Nights, by William Maxwell
Poetry - Atlantis, by Mark Doty

1995
American Studies - Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, by John Egerton
Biography & Autobiography - No Ordinary Time Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Fiction - The Collected Stories, by Grace Paley
Poetry - Like Most Revelations, by Richard Howard

1994
American Studies - Around the Cragged Hill A Personal and Political Philosophy, by George F. Kennan
Biography & Autobiography - W.E.B. Du Bois Biography of Race 1868-1919, by David Levering Lewis
Fiction - The Oracle at Stoneleigh Court, by Peter Taylor
Poetry - Tesserae & Other Poems, by John Hollander

1993
American Arts & Letters - Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell
American Studies - Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Worlds That Remade America, by Gary Wills
Biography & Autobiography - Archibald MacLeish: An American Life, by Scott Donaldson
Fiction - Outerbridge Reach, by Robert Stone

1991
American Arts & Letters - The House of Barrymore, by Margot Peters
American Studies - A New York Life, by Brendan Gill
Biography & Autobiography - The House of Morgan, by Ron Chernow
Fiction - Killing Mr. Watson, by Peter Matthiessen

1988
American Arts & Letters - Collected Prose, by Robert Lowell
American Studies - Miami, by Joan Didion
Biography & Autobiography - Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright, by Brendan Gill
Fiction - The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

1987
American Studies - Cities on a Hill: A Journey Through Contemporary American Cultures, by Frances FitzGerald
American Studies - The Cycles of American History, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr
Biography & Autobiography - The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume I: 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America, by Arnold Rampersad
Fiction - Roger's Version, by John Updike

Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are United States literary awards dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf and originally administered by the Saturday Review, the awards have been administered by the Cleveland Foundation since 1963.
Three or four awards, and sometimes a lifetime achievement award, are given out each year. Notable past winners include Zora Neale Hurston (1943), Langston Hughes (1954), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1959), Maxine Hong Kingston (1978), Wole Soyinka (1983), Nadine Gordimer (1988), Toni Morrison (1988), Ralph Ellison (1992), Edward Said (2000), and Derek Walcott (2004).

Friday, August 13, 2010

2010 AwardsZeitoun by Dave Eggers
Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music by Amiri Baraka
and 10 more -- where are they listed?

2009 Awards
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre. This should not be confused with the National Book Awards which operated under the same nomenclature, American Book Award, between 1980 and 1986 when both organizations gave out different awards under the same name.

2009
Houston A. Baker, Jr., Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Right Era
Danit Brown, Ask for a Convertible
Jericho Brown, Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
José Antonio Burciaga, The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga, edited by Mimi R. Gladstein and Daniel Chacón (University of Arizona Press)
Claire Hope Cummings, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds
Stella Pope Duarte, If I Die in Juarez (The University of Arizona Press)
Linda Gregg, All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press)
Suheir Hammad, Breaking Poems (Cypher Books)
Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder (Pantheon Books)
George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The A.A.C.M. and American Experimental Music
Patricia Santana, Ghosts of El Grullo (University of New Mexico Press)
Jack Spicer, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer
Lifetime Achievement Award: Miguel Algarin